Sokka Attempts Romance
by mentalsunflower
Summary: “Dancing sounds like fun,” she says wistfully, and suddenly her hands are taken by Sokka’s and she thinks she’s facing him. She’s not quite sure. Tokka


**A/N: **I love those run-on sentences. Takes place during The Headband.

**Disclaimer: **we all know this. Not my chars and whatnot.

* * *

No one notices them because they are all busy trying to learn how to dance, watching Aang and Katara: the Masters of Dancing, as Sokka likes to call them.

No one notices them shuffled off to the side, near the students who can actually sort of play their instruments. Toph is holding her arms behind her back, hands squeezed tightly together. Sokka is several feet off, inspecting one of the boys playing the horn-thingy that Toph isn't quite sure about with intense interest. She is bored stiff.

She can't see anything and she's too exhausted to try and see with her Earthbending, so she just listens to the many many pairs of feet stomping around as they try to learn to dance. She can hear—or is it feel? So hard to tell sometimes—Katara's feet, light and nimble, and Aang's feet, which barely touch the floor. She assumes he might be cheating by using the tiniest bit of Airbending to raise his height so he can dance properly with Katara, but she's not sure because would he risk it in front of all those kids?

Yea. He would.

She shuffles further away from the band. They're too loud. She is bored. Why does Aang have to get popular at school? Toph hates kids her age. She's never been friends with any. What does she do? Katara must be the centre of everyone's attention right now.

Except for her brother.

"You look glum," Sokka jokes as he sidles up beside her. Toph can feel his arm brush against hers, and she shies to the side.

"I'm all right," replies Toph boredly.

"Just all right?" asks Sokka, sounding surprised. "It's a dance! A fun thing! You know, the socializing, and the dancing, and the—er—" He falls quiet. "I hate dances," he finally mutters, and Toph can hear him crossing his arms. Can imagine he's pouting. Not that she would know what that looks like.

"Me too," she agrees, and the two stand in quiet, contented bitterness.

"You and Katara are no fun," says Toph, smirking, because isn't Katara usually the grumpy mother of the group? Sokka the dismal one?

"Say that when Katara's done showing off her moves," Sokka says with a little laugh.

"Ohh, so she and Aang _are _dancing," clarifies Toph. "I felt it, but I wasn't too sure."

"Dancing _together_," Sokka emphasises, and the two are quiet for a minute.

"Don't think it'll work," Toph decides suddenly, abruptly. She's noticed how Aang feels; she's a girl as much as she tries to hide it. Sometimes she picks up on these things.

Sokka has probably known since the beginning. "Maybe," he says instead of agreeing with her, and that agitates Toph. "You never know with Katara."

"I do," Toph says, still stubborn. "Aang just has a little crush." Like hers, but Toph likes to think her crush on Sokka is more than that, but of course it isn't, it never was, it never will be, but at the moment it feels like a lot more than that to a little twelve-year-old's heart.

"Well their dancing is something else," Sokka says, and Toph can hear he's impressed.

"You dance?" she asks loudly, over the music. There's a silence, and Toph wonders why, and then thinks he's probably nodding. "… Sokka?" she prompts, and she's right, and he stutters out, embarrassed.

"Uh, I meant, yea, a little. Dancing is a big thing in water tribes," he informs her. "Sometimes. You know, at ceremonies, festivals… that sort of thing. That's why Katara's so good."

"You must be too." Toph can hear the envy in her voice. For a blind girl, dancing was never even an option.

"Yea, I gotta admit I have some secret dancing skills up my sleeve." Toph smiles at Sokka's tone when he's trying to be smooth. It endlessly amuses her.

"It sounds like fun," she says wistfully, and suddenly her hands are taken by Sokka's and she thinks she's facing him. She's not quite sure.

"Wha—What are you doing?!" she yells angrily, but only because Toph is terribly mortified.

"Teaching you," says Sokka simply. "But don't worry, it's the easiest dance. We learned it when we couldn't even walk yet." It's supposed to be a joke and normally Toph would crack one right back but she is too nervous and her heart is beating too fast, and _what _is she supposed to do?!

"I can't see if I lift my feet," she whispers, nervous. Just like flying on Appa. Just like being in the desert.

"It'll only be for a second," Sokka chides in his mean way, even though he's not trying to be. "Lighten up, Toph!" And then he's telling her to lift her right foot to the left, by his, and to sort of follow his direction. But Toph can't see and each time her foot lifts she slams it back down onto the earth out of anxiety, and Sokka tells her to stop because, look, see what she did? There's little holes all over the ground! And she snaps at him and tells him she never wanted to do a stupid dance anyway, it's all so dumb and pointless, and he says _she _does dumb and pointless things and Toph is so angry but she still hasn't let go of his hands.

And still, no one notices them because they're in the shadows, where the music is loudest and the cave is coldest, and everyone's eyes are drawn to Aang and Katara's haunting dance, rather than Toph and Sokka's awkward attempts at some sort of dance that ends up looking more like a vicious wrestling game.

"Just stop, okay?" Toph yells and finally lets go of his hands and crosses her arms protectively in front of her. "I'm blind, I can't see, I can't dance, don't bother!" she yells, but the music is so loud she wonders if he can hear because he makes no reply. And she's about to repeat herself when she feels something like—lips?—on her own, but it's so fast, so quick, and then they're gone and Sokka is standing in front of her, silent, and Toph doesn't know what to say because she's embarrassed and surprised and feeling horrible about her stupid dancing skills.

"Dancing isn't really that important," Sokka finally tells her, and Toph has to smile because she is suddenly filled up with a warm joy, had he really just kissed her? _Her_?

No one notices them because they are all applauding Katara and Aang's passionate dance, and Toph and Sokka are half-hidden in shadows anyway, and no one really cares about the quiet happiness the two are sharing and the happiness they never really mention again.


End file.
